Accelerator Centre Celebrates the Breaking Ground on a New Building and in Clean Technologies

Today, with our partners from the Cora Group, the City of Waterloo, Sustainable Waterloo Region, University of Waterloo and Laurier, we proudly celebrated the groundbreaking on a new, innovative building within the R+T Park.

Evolv1, a 100,000 square foot facility located at 420 West Graham Way, is the first multi-tenanted building of its kind in Canada. With a focus on sustainability and the clean technologies, the building will be built with LEED Platinum principles and will operate with the goal of being net positive. Being net positive means the building generates more than enough energy to maintain heating, cooling, and power needs. The excess energy is then put back into the system through the provincial grid or used for other, on-site purposes like such as electric vehicle power stations (of which the building will have 14).

Continuing to foster innovation in the Waterloo tech community is central to the vision and mission of the Accelerator Centre. As a partner in the development of the Evolv1 space, we are proud to be leading the development and operation of a 15,000 square foot innovation space within the facility. 5,000 square feet in that innovation space will be home to Accelerator Centre client companies focused on Clean Tech and Smart Cities technology.

“Breaking ground on this building is a major milestone in the development of this vision. We are so grateful for the dedication of the Cora Group and all the partners that are bringing this idea to reality, says Sustainable Waterloo Region Executive Director, Tova Dadvidson says. “One part of the full vision for the building is the creation of an innovation space on the ground floor. This is a space that helps to foster the development of the clean economy that is already growing in Waterloo Region. The building, partnered with the activities and partners in the space, are together truly a local game changer.”

”The space will also be the centre of Canada’s premier clean tech cluster,” explains the AC’s Director of Client Experience and Special Projects, Emily Jackson. “It is intended to restore the Canadian clean economy to a position of global leadership. By providing all the necessary expertise, a collaborative environment, and specialized resources, the Innovation space will support the development of innovations in clean tech.”

Alongside anchor tenant, EY Canada, Accelerator Centre graduate Text Now will take a significant footprint within the building. CEO, Derek Ting, recognizes the unique opportunity to position his company within the innovative facility.

“Evolv1’s proximity to the University of Waterloo puts us right next to one of the most robust talent pipelines in the world,” he says. “We’re constantly looking for ways to attract and retain the very best talent and with our mission, our unique culture and now our plan to reside in one of the coolest work spaces in Waterloo, all of the pieces are coming together.”

With today’s ground breaking ceremony, construction has officially begun and the building first tenants are set to move in sometime in 2018.

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The Accelerator Centre is an award winning startup incubator dedicated to building and scaling sustainable, globally competitive technology firms; and to commercializing advanced research technologies emerging from academic institutions.